Aramintai

Prob nothing else to watch. It's been a drought lately.

Yea, main problem here is they talk a lot about things they gonna do and not doing much. Lots of empty yapping in general.

-Where's FL's Joseon era villain arc? We were only shown her maidservant arc and only 2 episodes left.
-Where's FL's career growth in ML's company? She did like 1 commercial total.
-Where are any noticable improvements in FL's life? She still lives on the roof, wandering aimlessly and seemingly forgetting all about that goal to become successfull and independent.

I think writers just got lost in the romance sauce, forgetting about what they were trying to say in the earlier episodes.

It doesn't really get better. At this point I even think FL's previous drama about an actor and a journalist was way better, and that one too had problems, lol.

I now only expect 1 or 2 decent ones per year. Quality went down by a lot since around 2022.

Man, this went down the drain fast. Such a bait and switch with promo trailers. The leads aren't villains, they didn't show anything about FL's life as a powerful concubine doing these supposed villainous things to get that reputation. Lots of dumb, immature stuff fluffed up by not always funny bickering dialogues. SML, SFL, aunts, grandpa - crazy trash, delulu trash, boring trash wasting screen time. Only FL's rival and FL's manager are more or less interesting to watch.
What's going on with FL's soul? She gonna go back to the past? They gonna do Mr. Queen ending or Alchemy of Souls P2? I honestly dont' really care anymore...

Thankfully last week next week. When are we finally gonna get a kdrama with a good plot that is not a misleading trainwreck?

The guy's delulu to the bone. With conviction. It's gonna be very hard to get rid of him, he probably will have to die and nothing of value'd be lost, lol.

She's gonna tell us in the next episode. Looks like some scholars were escorting SML back to the city from the mountain and died because of him.

Episode 9.

FL hired assassins to kidnap herself. Then FL's helper captain guy was supposed to defend her against them.
FL's stepsister hired an assassin to kidnap FL. Those two are spectacular clumsy losers.
SML and his guards were stalking FL to kidnap her on false pretenses.
🤣

It's a tiny libation gesture.

Yea, I think she's gonna blackmail her stepmom on top of that greedy guy to make her reign in her stepsister. Can't have her scheming doing something nasty to FL again.

I dropped AtC. Looked very amateurish all round.

I'm intrigued by the mountain mystery and altered FL's character for the most part. The usual typical scheming, delulu SML and mild slow burn romance aren't selling it for me so far. Props to the writers for adding this new stuff that wasn't in the novel. I think I would have dropped it if FL was just some typical wronged poor heiress scheming revenge, seen too many of those already.
I'm not sure how long they gonna keep us in suspense over the mystery though, can't be they gonna drag it for whole 40 episodes? If the mystery's gone though, the plot may be in trouble.

Btw, it looks like FL's stepmother had an affair and her step-sister is not her father's? And FL knew all about it?

My thoughts so far:
1. Talking to imaginary people is one of the signs of schizophrenia, but can also happen with PTSD. She talked to them in front of other people on at least two occasions.
2. She also in the recent episode assosiated herself as a swordsman master to kill the snakes. That's dissociative identity disorder signs. Something like that looks like can happen with PTSD as well. It's now also clear that her helper captain guy doesn't know what happened at the mountain and who's alive or not.
3. She looked pretty normal as a kid, so I'm kinda not sold on schizophrenia tbh, but who knows, maybe PTSD caused it to emerge.
4. She seems to be oblivious to her mental issues. Of course they could still blow our minds and reveal that she's been faking all that, but it doesn't look it, especially that episode with her chasing away the monkeys at night.

I'm gonna be honest, for relieving the audience's stress of agonizing over FL's condition I hope it's PTSD, that one's at least treatable 😭

If she became them, she'd talk from their perspective, but she talks to them as herself. People who saw her doing it (her helper guy and ML at one time) didn't hear her taking both roles, they saw herself talking into empty space.

I think these themes are rare in dramas exactly because it's a dangerous territory and you can fk up the plot really bad really easily and offend a lot of people. Not many are willing to take the risk.

Schizophrenia can also develop as a form of PTSD. She talks to imaginary people in front of other people - that's one of the signs. I'm not an expert in any shape or form, just read some stuff, but either way her condition is very troubling no matter what sort of dire mix of mental issues they've cooked up for her.

I hope it pays off in the end and that this layered onion is not empty inside.

Are either of these things curable? Afaik, schizophrenia is not curable, but manageable with drugs and therapy. And it's modern science, not some old ages. I think writers are treading a dangerous path here. They can't make light of her serious mental issues by sweeping them under a rug later after they serve their narrative purpose, or magically curing them with the power of love. That's not how it works irl unfortunately and this drama looks to be grounded on reality, not some xianxia.

I don't want to whine or spark controversy here, but FL's character is depressing me when I start contemplating her situation seriously. This whole drama gives very sad vibes even in lighthearted moments.